Languages vs. Frameworks

I began to learn a new programming language for the first time in a couple of years and it made me start thinking about the differences between languages and frameworks, as this particular language--F#--inherited a large industrial framework; the .Net platform. But while F# inherited a class library, it didn't yet have the accouterments that come with its older cousins C# and VB.Net: the skeletal application templates, the Recommended Practices, the forms designers hooked up to code generators. F# didn't yet come with "put your code here" as a development model. It made me feel naked, but it also reminded me about the trade-off and debate between expressive languages and "visual" editors.

That is: should you improve the language, or improve the development environment?